Why Conservatives Support Pete Hegseth
(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Pete Hegseth’s confirmation hearing on Tuesday served as a reminder of sheer amount of baggage imperiling his nomination to run the Department of Defense.
There are a slew of allegations against him suggestive of character concerns, ranging from the salacious (marital infidelities), to the sloppy (alcohol abuse), to the monstrous (sexual assault). On Tuesday, Democrats made sure that each and every one of those allegations had their moment in the sun.
Yet Hegseth is more likely than ever to take charge of the Pentagon. Shortly after he concluded his time in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) — the bellwether voter on his nomination — reiterated that she was supporting him.
It is tempting to chalk Republicans’ decision to coalesce around Hegseth to some toxic combination of cowardice and obeisance. Democrats and their allies in the Fourth Estate would love nothing more than to use his confirmation as an example of conservatives’ unconditional surrender to President-elect Donald Trump. And while there is at least some truth there — look no further than the pressure campaign Trump world subjected Ernst to — there are plenty of other variables working in the nominee’s favor.
For one thing, his message about refocusing the Department of Defense on its stated purpose appeals to conservatives.
Hegseth has lambasted Pentagon leadership for spending time, energy, and money on promoting pet projects — including Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives — instead of a “warrior ethos” and improving the lethality of the U.S. military.
The former Fox News host oftentimes packages this critique in a shock-jocky delivery that preaches to the choir, but doesn’t win any converts. That doesn’t mean it’s without merit, though; the military has lowered standards in order to satisfy diversity goals.
This pattern of subordinating merit to progressive dogma is just as discernable in other spheres, such as academia, journalism, and even comedy.
So when Hegseth warns about such systematic problems infecting an institution as vital to American national security, not to mention global order, as the U.S. military, that endears him to conservatives and should be a mark in his favor for all with the right priorities.
Moreover, while the laundry list of allegations against Hegseth might be enough to make it baffling to reliable Democratic voters that senators would nonetheless line up behind him, it makes quite a bit more sense when you view them through a Republican’s lens.
After all, Democrats have long played dirty during nomination fights.
They made Robert Bork, one of the preeminent legal minds of the last century, out to be a sexist, racist, neanderthal. They amplified flimsy sexual misconduct allegations against Brett Kavanaugh and Clarence Thomas. For explicitly political reasons — they feared that a conservative Latino on the Supreme Court would make it more difficult to cast the GOP as unrepentantly bigoted — they put Miguel Estrada through a ruthless process during which his wife miscarried and after which she committed suicide. Only three Democrats voted to confirm Neil Gorsuch. None voted for Amy Coney Barrett, whose Catholic faith was held against her.
So while Hegseth has lived, at best, a life full of mistakes, conservatives are not especially inclined to give in to the demands of Tim Kaine, who upbraided Hegseth for his infidelities but ran on a ticket with Hillary Clinton and lovingly recalled being interrogated “like a prospective son-in-law” by Bill Clinton. Or to those of Elizabeth Warren, who questioned Hegseth’s honesty but who used a fabrication about her Native American background to climb the ladder. Or to those of The New Yorker‘s Jane Mayer, who participated in the smearing of Kavanaugh and erroneously reported that Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) had refused to meet with Hegseth’s accuser.
It’s indisputable that Republicans have lowered their standards for their own in the Trump era. But in the context of progressives’ failures — as well as their demonstrated willingness to bite, kick, scratch, and ruin lives in the pursuit of political power — that should hardly come as a surprise.
This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.
